"You are...a boil on the ass of ufology!"
-John Keel, writing in the March 25th, 1977 issue of "Saucer Smear"

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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE SAUCER & UNEXPLAINED CELESTIAL EVENTS RESEARCH SOCIETY

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EDITOR AND STILL SUPREME COMMANDER: James W. Moseley CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Karl T. Pflock

NON-SCHEDULED NEWSLETTER Volume 48, No. 4 April 25th, 2001

MAILING ADDRESS: P. 0. Box 1709 Key West, FL 33041

• TIDBITS OF TRASH
• MORE MADNESS FROM THE MUFON JOURNAL
• NEWS BRIEFIES
• Pflock Ptalk - MJ-12 FOLLIES, PART TWO: MJ-MENZEL
• LETTERS TO YE OLDE EDITOR
• BOOKS TO KEEP YOUR BONFIRE BURNING BRIGHTLY

• An in-depth article in the prestigious New York Times Magazine (Feb. 4th, 2001) tells of the weird Raelian cult, which has received a lot of publicity lately in regard to anning. Their ideas on cloning are reasonable and scientific, but the leader of the cult is a French former race-car driver who is a UFO contactee. He claims that in 1973 he had an encounter with a four-foot-tall alien whose flying saucer had landed atop a volcano in southern France. From this creature he learned that humans were originally created in a laboratory by highly advanced beings from another planet who had mastered genetics and cell biology.

  Subsequent visits to the spacecraft, during which Rael enjoyed the sexual attentions of six "voluptous and bewitching" female robots, convinced the fun-loving prophet that the aliens did indeed have a superior civilization: The Raelian headquarters is in rural Quebec, Canada, about an hour from Montreal. It includes a museum devoted to extraterrestrial phenomena and to genetics - a curious mixture of science fiction and science. The main exhibit room contains a life-sized replica of the flying saucer Rael allegedly boarded in 1973 for his visit with the aliens.

  The building also contains Rael's very private office, which is accessible only through a double set of electronic doors. There Rael gives interviews concerning his very unusual philosophy. He believes, in brief, that the secret to eternal life is - eventually - through human cloning. (Our thanks to Chris Roth for this item.)

• From Glenn Steckling, Director of the George Adamski Foundation (also called GAF International), we have received a package of about 70 pages of their postings on the Internet. The Foundation was begun in 1965, the year Adamski died, and although we met young Steckling a few years ago, we had forgotten that this Foundation is still in existence. It is indeed a tribute to old George (whom we met a few times) that his friends & followers continue to lurch forward in his name so many years after his demise.

  From the material Steckling sent us, we learn that "The Adamski Foundation...is dedicated to promoting scientific fact and philosophical thought pertinent to understanding that Human Life is the rule, not the exception, throughout the universe - and, as humans, we all have the potential to prosper peacefully among ourselves and with our planetary neighbors whose physical make-up follows the same biological laws of nature as do ours here on Earth."

  One could dispute the scientific validity of the above statement, but nevertheless it is a harmless philosophy.

  Among the 70 pages of material sent, there is an interesting 10 page treatise called "The Possibility of Life on Other Planets". This is attributed to Adamski as of 1946 - about six years before he started having alleged close encounters of his own with spacecraft.

  Also of interest is the fact that the Foundation seems unsure of how to deal with stories of UFO abductions - since there were no such stories in Adamski's day.

  See also Glenn Steckling's letter to the editor, further along in this issue. In real life, Glenn is (or claims to be) a pilot with an airline he won't identify. He can be reached at P.O. Box 1722, Vista, California 92085.

  ON THE OTHER HAND, if you want the inside story about Adamski's interplanetary claims, send for our Special Adamski Expose Issue (1957) of "Saucer News". This is available for a mere ten dollars from Tom Benson, P.O. Box 11741 Trenton, N.J. 08606. This is a real collector's item!

The April 2001 issue does not let us down in this regard. For starters, we have a dreadful "cop-out" regarding the John Carpenter Affair. Instead of telling us - the members - the results of MUFON's supposedly indepth investigation of John Carpenter's ethics re the selling of abduction reports, we are given the following short statement: Under "Vacant Board Positions", we read: "John Carpenter has vacated the post of MUFON Director of Abduction Research, citing personal reasons and the need to spend more time with his career activities". Sure!...

Next regarding this year's MUFON Symposium in Orange County California, Harold Burt (author of "Flying Saucers 101") gushes as follows: "The work being done by the speakers in this year's symposium will eventually be recognized as more important to mankind than the work of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers..."

We would be more likely to at- tend, ourselves, if Franklin or one of these other great men were to be there in person - preferably on the lecture program. Or perhaps they could be channelled!

Finally, our old friend (??) Richard Hall manages to have an indepth discussion of discredited contactee George Adamski without once mentioning that the definitive expose of that departed gentleman was made by yours truly, back in the 1950s - as explained elsewhere in this issue. Hall gives all the credit to the NICAP organization, with which he was then associated. Even though Hall despises us, he should give credit where credit is due. Egads!

See also the letter from Paul Thompson in this issue.

• The following are among the speakers already scheduled for the giant 3-day NUFOC convention in Austin, Texas next September 14th-16th: Jenny Randles, Karl Pflock, Patrick Huyghe, Dennis Stacy, Tom Deuley, Constance Clear, Greg Bishop, Kenn Thomas, and of course your humble "Smear" editor.

  For further info., contact Miles Lewis at P.O. Box 33509, Austin, Texas 78764, or www.nufoc.net...

• The motion picture based on John Keel's 1975 book "The Mothman Prophecies" has begun production in Pittsburgh, Pa., although it involves the area around Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney, this semi-non-fiction movie involves strange sightings of a giant birdlike creature in 1966 and 1967, culminating in the collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River in late 1967. Forty-six people were killed in this tragedy, which likely had no connection at all to the Mothman sightings.

  We were glad to learn that John Keel, as the author of the book on which the movie is based, has finally been paid a modest amount of money for his efforts. Anything less than that would be an outrage. Keel is of very modest means, and has not written any books in a long time. Thus he can surely use the $s!

  By coincidence, Ron Bonds of IllumiNet Press, who was the publisher of several of Keel's books, died suddenly, apparently of food poisoning, about April 6th. Bonds was a well-known conspiracy publisher and writer, and was the second such writer to die recently in a somewhat mysterious way. Some of our readers will remember that Jim Keith died in 1999 from a relatively minor injury suffered at the Burning Man Festival that year. Some people are now mumbling that there is a conspiracy to kill off conspiracy writers!...

• By another coincidence(?), by the time you read this, your editor and a handful of other researchers will have left on a trip to Point Pleasant, W.Va., to learn more about the Mothman phenomenon ourselves. This is a side-trip re our mini-convention in Clarksburg, W.Va. on the weekend of April 28th - as described in previous issues of this zine. A report on all this will appear in our next issue...

• Page 8 of Phil Klass' March 2001 issue of "Skeptics UFO Newsletter" (SUN) has an update on his deteriorating physical condition. He states that he will try to maintain a quarterly schedule from now on, rather than bi-monthly. We wish him well!...

• Due to the "dot-com" stock market slump, former(?) multi-millionaire Joe Firmage and Carl Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, have had to put their online "One Cosmic Network" in mothballs, so to speak. Say they: "Whatever the reasons, our Internet enterprise is out of fuel, and as of Feb. 15th, 2001, we have put it into indefinite hibernation..."

• ...An amusing lead item from the Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR) current quarterly report: "The Fund's 'The Press Newsletter' has been issued on a regular monthly schedule. Thus far, only one response has been received. Despite the lack of immediate interest from the media, monthly editions will continue."

• .... Charles Johnson, president of the International Flat Earth Society, has died at the age of 76. In spite of earth satellites, Moon landings, etc., Johnson and his followers seriously believed, from Biblical lore, that the Earth is flat - though Johnson had a sense of humor about it. In the mid-1990s the Society had roughly 3,500 members at $25 each (about like MUFON!), but a disastrous fire later destroyed all records, and the membership never recovered. Some ignorant people likened the Society to UFO groups! (Thanks again to Chris Roth.)

When he joined in making the Eisenhower Briefing Document (mother of all MJ-12 papers) public, Roswell maven Stan Friedman professed amazement: The EBD revealed that Harvard astronomer and anti-saucer fiend Donald H. Menzel was a founding member of NJ-12! Who would have ever imagined the dreaded and despised bane of UFOs and urologists had been part of the Roswell coverup, a role completely contrary to his arch-debunker reputation?

Friedman reasoned that no one perpetrating a hoax would have included someone so utterly "wrong" as one of the coverup cabalists. All the other alleged MJ-12ers were regulars on the usual-suspects lists. Menzel stuck out like a sore thumb. Thus, said Friedman, Menzel's being named in the EBD was virtual proof the document was authentic and MJ-12 a reality!

Recently, however, the vast "PFlock PTalk" investigative staff has uncovered what we are told is the rest of the story. I offer it here without comment for loyal Smearophiles to assess for themselves.

In 1976, ufologist Brad Sparks discovered that Menzel had a UFO sighting near Alamogordo, New Mexico, when he was in the area in 1949 setting up Sacramento Peak Observatory for the Air Force. This suggested Menzel could have been there in July 1947, at the time and conveniently near where the Roswell saucer allegedly crashed. Newly found records reveal the observatory project didn't begin until September 1947, so he probably wasn't; but in 1976, it was a possibility. Then...

In 1977, Sparks circulated a paper on Menzel, his presence in New Mexico in the 1940s, and his sighting and his distortions of and outright attempts to suppress it. One of Sparks' very interested readers was Friedman. Then...

In 1982, Canadian engineer-ufologist Wilbert Smith's notes on his 1950 indirect interview of American scientist Robert Sarbacher surfaced. Smith alleged that Sarbacher, briefly an advisor to the U.S. Defense Research and Development Board, had confirmed crash saucers were being studied by a super-secret U.S. government group. Then...

According to my sources, Friedman instantly concluded the group had been established to study the Roswell saucer and bodies, and fingered Menzel as the most likely leader of the outfit because he was "right on the scene" when the crash occurred, working on an Air Force contract. I am told no amount of argument would dissuade Friedman, who contended Menzel's avid debunkery was part of a clever cover for his true views and secret activities. Then...

Friedman quickly worked up a list of probable members of the "Sarbacher-Smith group", which my sources say included not only Menzel but all on the EBD MJ-12 roster. Over the next couple of years, Friedman quietly but enthusiastically touted his theory about Menzel and the saucer-study panel to ufological colleagues. Then...

In 1984, the EBD, exposed on a roll of undeveloped 35mm film, allegedly arrived in Jaime Shandera's mailbox. Shandera was an associate of Friedman and his Roswell collaborator Bill Moore. This trio proceeded to devote much time and energy to research suggested by the curious windfall. Then...

In 1987, they went public with the EBD and MJ-12 at the National UFO Conference in Burbank. Friedman made much of his "Who'da thunk it?" surprise on discovering Menzel's involvement, uttering nary a word about his earlier notions. Who'da thunk it?

• PAUL THOMPSON, a professional writer on various topics, writes as follows regarding his recent dispute with MUFON, as mentioned in our last issue:

  "I thought I would take the time to update you on the affair of my 'Magic vs. Majic' article being reprinted by MUFON without permission. I'll start from the beginning, even though we covered some of this ground on the phone.

  "On March 18th I was perusing the online version of 'Saucer Smear' when I came upon mention of an article I wrote in 1997 for the web magazine ParaScope .... Titled 'Magic vs. Majic', it compares the history of the pre-WWII solution of the Japanese Type 97 cipher machine to the alleged 'Majestic 12' group claimed to have been set up to study the equally alleged Roswell spaceship crash. (I am convinced the 'Majestic 12' papers are a hoax, and the entire Roswell incident an overblown case of folklore, inspired by the finding of debris from a secret Project Mogul balloon.)

  "My article was reprinted in its entirety mn the January 2001 issue of the MUFON Journal - without my permission. I contacted Mr. Moseley's web guy (Steve Mansee), who responded quickly and put me in touch with Mr. Moseley by phone later the same day. Mr. Moseley offered to send me a copy of the January 2001 Journal, and he did... I then discovered that my complete article had been reprinted, with byline and the appellation 'Nebula Editor' - a title only used by ParaScope...

  "As of today (April 6th), I am satisfied the reprinting was an error. Mr. Schuessler has promised to meet all my conditions (copies of the journal with the article; payment for the article based on the going rate; an acknowledgment of the error to be published in the journal). When that happens, I shall consider the matter closed. I hope the incident improves communications among the folks at MUFON, so that similar accidents don't happen again!..."

• WILLIAM MOORE writes as follows:

  "When I wrote that I welcomed any reaction or comments you might have (regarding the Mormon material), I hardly expected to see them in print without some prior warning. However I must say that, all things considered, I am personally pleased with the fairness and accuracy of the result, for which I thank you.

  "Of course, had you troubled to inform me in advance that you intended to go public with the contents of my 'highly confidential' communication, I might have avoided the highly embarrassing situation of having to first learn of what you had done by means of an urgent and very troubled phone call from my associate Mr. Vanick, who in turn had just finished fielding two phone calls from curious 'Smear' readers who, it seems, had experienced the good fortune of having received and read their copies before I had received and read mine. Needless to say, I was left (once again) feeling completely blind-sided and not a little bit betrayed by someone who is supposed to be a friend...

  "Therefore, in order to defuse this situation and remain as far above the fray as possible, I have informed my associates, and now I am informing you as well, that I will regrettably be unable to accept your generous invitation to speak at your convention in Austin this year..."

  We have apologized to Bill Moore for unintentionally embarrassing him regarding his anti-Mormon activities, and we are sorry to hear that he will not speak at Austin. - Editor.

• ELDON BYRD, long-time friend of psychic Uri Geller & antagonist of James ("The Amusing") Randi, writes as follows:

  "Even though the date on the latest 'Smear' is April Fool's Day, I am assuming that the articles and letters are no more a joke than in any other issue...

  "The main reason I have decided to lose my literary virginity in your rag is the lead article about the Spaulding Manuscript. I have yet to visit the web site, and I will do that. However, I wanted to post something less verbose than it will be after I have looked at the 1,100 pages designed to destroy the Mormon Church...

  "The claim, as I understand it, is that the historical parts of the Book of Mormon were copied from a manuscript by Solomon Spaulding and that the doctrinal parts of the B of M were written by Sidney Rigdon. What can be verified is that Sidney Rigdon did not meet Joseph Smith, translator of the B of N from metal plates that several witnesses verify they saw and touched, until after the B of M was published. The Spauldlng Manuscript was found in 1844 in papers belonging to a Mr. E. D. Howe, publisher of Hurlburt's 'Mormonism Unveiled'. The entire manuscript was published in the Deseret News in 1886 under the title, 'The Manuscript Found', and is available to anyone who cares to read it. A comparison of the manuscript with the Book of Mormon reveals that there is not one incident or proper name common to both!..."

• Researcher CHRISTOPHER ROTH, Ph.D., writes:

  "I wasn't aware that the contention that the Mormon religion is a fraud is disputed by anyone other than Mormons and Erich yon Daniken! The Book of Mormon is such an obvious mishmash of the strange racial and migration theories of crackpot anthropologists of the day, and the language it's written in is such a ham-handed 19th-century attempt to sound Biblical, with lots of gratuitous 'thereunto's and 'so it came to pass's, etc. If God's best shot at composing a Third Testament is the Book of Mormon, we're all in bigger trouble than we can imagine. Smith was himself a confidence man and medicine-show hustler before he got into the religion game. Was the choice of the name Moroni for the angel who supposedly delivered the text Joseph Smith's sly commentary on those who would follow him (there's one born every minute, etc.)? Then again, people who live in glass flying saucers shouldn't throw stones!..."

• KENN THOMAS of Steamshovel Press writes:

  "I don't understand what you disagree with about Stan Friedman's letter in your latest issue. I thought it was interesting that he brought up the names of Philby, Burgess and McLean. Jim Martin gives the history of that Cold War spy cabal a new twist in his book 'Wilhelm Reich and the Cold War'. He has a small but dwindling number of copies still available through www.flatlandbooks.com; but more importantly, he has corroborating proof of the existence of MJ-12.

  "In short, Jim has found a document with dates that synchronize with the National Archives' Cutler/Twining memo, from the archives of Lew Douglas, who belonged to Eisenhower's 'kitchen cabinet'. I think it takes tremendous intellectual acrobatics to not understand that the 'Special Studies' sub-group of MJ-12 noted in the Cutler/Twining memo refers to Wilhelm Reich and his encounters with UFOs at the time...

  "How about directing your readers to Jim's very well-reasoned discussion of all this in his extraordinarily well-researched book? Thanks."

• Our olde pal HARRY LIME of Vienna, Austria, writes:

  "Ex-nuclear physicist Friedman's deft ducking of the issue of whether he does nuclear - or any sort of - physics anymore gave me a good chuckle. He cites an example from years ago having no bearing on today and which, even then, was, shall we say, weasely. So at the time Klass alleged he was a fulltime UFO lecturer-peddler, he made the majority of his income 'from technical consulting work'. This in no way addresses my point that to legitimately call oneself a nuclear physicist, one must currently be doing physics; nor does it tell us he was doing physics even then! How about Stanton T. Friedman, Technical Consultant and Itinerant Ufolecturer? Yes, that sounds about right.

  "By the way, one of my Very Reliable Sources tells me that an impish someone in the house that published Friedman's 'TOP SECRET/MAJIC' amusingly changed the author's title to 'Rocket Scientist' on the bound page proofs circulated to reviewers. How delightful and perceptive!..."

• Skeptic MICHAEL DENNETT writes:

  "I just finished reading your terrific April l, 2001 issue of 'Saucer Smear'. 'Smear' remains the premier UFO magazine!

  "Karl Pflock writes well, is articulate and reasonably balanced. I suggest he try to lighten up a little and his column will be even better.

  "Speaking of people who need to loosen up, what's with Stanton Friedman? MJ-12 is not going anywhere; he needs to get a life! Pretty much everybody has made a value judgment on MJ-12 and Stan's not going to gain any significant number of converts. When I attended the MUFON convention in Seattle a few years back, I overheard several people saying that they couldn't believe Stanton was still pushing MJ-12 when most of the UFO community didn't give it any credence!..."

• GLENN STECKLING, Director of the George Adamski Foundation, writes:

  "After so many years - at least 8 or 9, I think - it was interesting to hear from you once again. Naturally, I am quite familiar with your background and recall our little Private debate, the testing of wills so to speak, we engaged upon during our last meeting in Trenton, N.J. years past. Recalling one of your little revelations, hopefully any continued sightings of those pesky apparitions (as you preferred to call them), the ones so resembling those 'supposedly nonexistent' physical, three-dimensional metallic flying saucers, are not continuing to plague your field of vision or causing any sleepless nights!

  "Per our conversation...I am providing you with more than ample material from our website to digest/dissect. And for the moment, I'm sure this will be more than adequate...

  "I look forward to hearing from you, and receiving a copy of your next publication pertaining to George (Adamski) and/or us. Hopefully something containing a bit more value than the same old, tired, rehashed second-rate opinions, false assumptions, and fables from the past."

• TOM CURTIN JR. (see photo at the right) writes as follows:

  "This letter is from one of your biggest fans, MUFON Field Investigator Thomas Lee Curtin Jr. I would just like to say I enjoyed your talk at the Tampa Bay MUFON meeting. I thought having the Tampa Bay Skeptics group present was a gutsy move, but I think having just a group of believers in a room together can only lead to lengthy, one-sided conversations that become repetitous to anyone who may be a fanatic of the unknown. Hopefully bringing together two extreme sides can result in a happy middle meeting ground...

  "I'm proud to be a 'Smear' non-subscriber and a friend of a ufology legend, Mr. Moseley."

• Still another soft-cover booklet (8 by ll, 24 pages) has oozed off the press of Cleveland's United Aerial Phenomena Agency (UAPA). This one is called "Mysterious Things in the Sky", written by Rick Hilberg and the late Allan J. Manak.

  This booklet, first published almost 20 years ago, contains very short accounts of many sightings all the way from 222 B.C to 1929 A.D. More details on each sighting would add a lot to this tome, but at least the entries are nicely spaced apart (for once). Some photographs, especially of those B.C. sightings, would help a lot too, but there are a few interesting drawings by the late artist Benita ("Bunny") Owens, who at one time was romantically linked to Al Manak.

  Another member of UAPA is Carol Hilberg, who is romantically linked to Rick Hilberg.

  Send $6.95 to UAPA at: 377 Race Street, Berea, Ohio 44017 ....

• A novel approach to ufology is taken by a new book called "The UFO Book of Lists", a 240-page softcover by Citadel Press. The author is one Stephen J. Spighesi.

  Just as the title implies, this volume is an endless list of lists, such as "19 Amazing Quotations about UFOs" (the famous Harry S. Truman quote is used again & is inaccurate, as we've pointed out before); "99 Important People in Ufology" (your "Smear" editor is NOT listed, but we find many total unknowns!); "The 13 Principles of the Hollow Earth Theory"; and "93 UFO Organizations and Resources". Here we find many defunct or non-existent groups, but mercifully "Saucer Smear" is correctly described as a "satirical mag that does not take the UFO experience too seriously".

  One should not take this book too seriously, either, as there is a lot of garbage therein. However, some sections are interesting and well done. The "Conclusion" (Pages 161-162) regarding the Roswell Incident is excellent, and agrees with the theory that the incident, in all reasonable probability, was caused by a Mogul Balloon, in spite of all of the legendary evidence to the contrary!

  Incidentally, your "Smear" editor has just been invited to speak at the 2002 annual UFO festival, in Roswell, New Mexico. Wheee!

CASH-LANDRUM UFO INCIDENT Three Texans are injured during an encounter with a UFO and military helicopters, written by John Schuessler. A 323-page soft-cover book now available from MUFON, P.O. Box 369, Morrison, CO, 80465-0369, for $19.95, plus $2 for postage and handling.

SINNERS ECLIPSE MOON Rampaging Muslims burnt down 40 hotels and bars in the Northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri in reaction to the lunar eclipse on 9 January. "The immoral acts committed in these places are responsible for this eclipse," police quoted a youth leader as saying. (Reuters] 11 Jan 2001

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